Spring Fling 2011 - Days 3 & 4

The weather eliminated any guilt from making these two very quiet & relaxing days.  It rained, at varying intensities all day Saturday and although Sunday was dry it was still unpleasant as it remained in the mid-30's all day and the wind blew strongly, discouraging any outside activity that was not essential.  Both days were spent in reading, watching TV series on DVD, some PC activity, and eating - pleasant, but hardly stirring stuff.

Saturday evening was spent at the Country Club as guests of the Library Board President in attending a "roast" of a much-loved local figure (& former library board president himself) who was about to retire after a lifetime in education, much of it as the Junior High School principal & through whose school the vast majority of the attendees had passed.  It was a successful charity fund-raiser and actually both amusing and enjoyable even to an out-of-towner and a city "newcomer" (eight years down here doesn't qualify as anything else!).

Sunday's "out-of-house" experience was to make two laps of the proposed upcoming 5K circuit, the first to check the route and make a couple of off-setting changes, and the second to "proof" the 3.1 mile distance.  That was followed by a supermarket run to get the ingredients for the delicious pot-roast we enjoyed in the evening.

Spring Fling 2011 - Days 1 & 2

The first day was mostly good.  The early morning routine, rise, mall-walk, coffee & newspaper, and breakfast was quite normal, the morning weather was decent and the final stages of preparing to leave the house for a while went smoothly (and 95% correctly!)  Mid-morning sunshine suggested taking the riverside "scenic route" & accelerated the time of departure.  However, a late weather alert warned of floods bringing the realization that the Ohio River may well be in flood & closing sections of the river road, plus the clouds moved in completely obliterating any further sunshine.  Pulling out of the driveway with the odometer at zero the decision was made to simply go for the speedy route.

First stop was The Brick in Jonesville for their excellent bean soup and even better (if messy) hamburger deluxe.  Thereafter it was just a speedy dash all the way to Marissa's in Mount Vernon.  There was a great deal of water everywhere & all rivers and creeks were very high.  The drive was 217 miles.

Zoe was my welcoming hostess and seemed to be very pleased to see me.  I settled in and waited to see Marissa who could only stay a little while as she had three meetings back-to-back taking much of the late afternoon and evening, justifying my arrival today to "dog-sit".

After she had left I went to set up my laptop and ran into the first trip crisis which quite spoiled my evening.  Briefly distracted while packing away the laptop in Columbus I had forgotten to pack the computer battery charger!  Wild ideas of a round trip to get it, or a return home for a night between here & heading south did not appeal.  However, knowing Marissa wanted to install a new router & test it I chose to save what battery capacity I had.  After Marissa returned & we discussed it after making our plans we decided to see if I couldn't obtain a generic replacement in Evansville.

Saturday's morning weather was iffy at best, but all forecasts indicated that it would deteriorate later and be really nasty for the next 72 hours.  We made a decently early start towards Evansville, grabbed some breakfast when we got there and started shopping.  In Michael's Marissa bought my choice of a tapestry that will eventually grace my house, in the going-out-of-business Border's I bought a number of CD's for my listening pleasure while driving south and back while she bought a DVD or three, and then in Best Buy we got her router and my universal PC charger.

We then moved on to the zoo, virtually deserted on a cool, wet school day.  We made a pass through their fully enclosed and warm Amazonia and enjoyed all the orchids that had been temporarily integrated therein.  We then proceeded to give ourselves a good work-out by walking the entire zoo, which while not large as zoo's go is built in a very hilly area. As the old joke goes, it felt like it was "uphill, both ways"!  Out timing was good as for 98% of our walking it was merely damp & we were close enough to dive back into Amazonia while a short, sharp shower inundated the area.  After it stopped we made our way out, headed back through Evansville, stopped for a fast-food lunch and then a quick shop for food supplies (mostly for breakfasts) and then back home, through the now-steady rain, swinging down by the waterfront to see that the Ohio River is already well above flood stage.

The router is set up and works, the laptop is on charge/mains power, and after a successful day we settled down to watch some of the episodes of our last set of DVD's of NCIS, the 7th season.

A few pictures have been posted on Flickr & may be seen here.

Spring Fling 2011 - Preamble

Following a welcome if unexpected phone call from long time friends, during which an invitation was extended, the idea of Spring Fling trip, during the doldrum days of late winter, began to take root and rapidly moved towards becoming a reality.

Two portions quickly became certainties, a very long weekend (Thursday evening thru Tuesday early morning) with Marissa for one of her 3-day weekends combined with a "split shift" Monday, then two long days of driving and a stay with Jean & Peter Emery in central Florida.  The third objective, a visit with Rita & Bob Stevens near Mobile, Alabama rapidly became iffy as it rained in Nevada towards the end of February.

With luck, entries about the highlights of the period away from Columbus will appear in this forum.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #16

Like mother, like daughter!  The day had been planned as a gentle start to seriously moving south with a lakeshore run down beside Lake Michigan, a visit to Green Bay to at least see the outside of Lambeau Field, the home of the Green Bay Packers NFL Football Team, and perhaps a little more shopping in the various outlets to be found in Oshkosh.

However, the shoreline cruise took less time than expected, even with stops for gas and a walk in a State Park by the lake and in playing with Portia Marissa realized that we had allowed too much time for the day, since we would reach our two destinations much earlier than anticipated.  Portia also suggested that, to avoid the anti-climax that always comes with leaving the U.P. a run all the way home was quite credible, so having confirmed we could cancel our last hotel reservation without penalty we elected to make a run for it.

The problem with GPS device inexperience lies in the words "traffic" and "delays"!  Had we been traveling between midnight and early morning, the time estimate would probably have been pretty close to correct.  As it turned out, construction around Milwaukee delayed us a fair bit, but far worse was taking over ninety minutes to achieve a mere five miles of "freeway" distance around Chicago.  Nevertheless, by alternating drivers and making minimal & very brief stops, we managed to pull in to Marissa's driveway a little before midnight (Central time), tired but happy to be done with traveling for a while.  We will still look on the weekend as vacation time, but without the pressure to achieve a great deal in a big hurry.

While we have reported on our own experiences and behavior and described at times Zoe's enjoyment of unfettered freedom, we should also comment on Zoe's great general behavior.  We had zero "accidents" the whole trip, and she was spectacularly well behaved and uncomplaining even during the very long runs, especially this last one, which between pulling out of the hotel in Iron Mountain and arriving at Marissa's totaled 728.4 miles.  Although the trip odometer will continue to run in and around Mount Vernon and then back to Columbus, this effective end to the major travels has been reached at 3178.3 miles.

Just a couple of pictures of Lambeau Field were added to the set on this last day, so the complete Flickr set of the small proportion of our pictures actually put there may be found here.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #15

Giving a sense of deja vu it was again cool and overcast (and even with some rain in the evening) for our day in and around Iron Mountain, just like last year, but it was still a good day.  We started, after the usual gentle "we're on vacation" start, by driving east of Iron Mountain and south a little to Piers Gorge and the trail beside the river, which latter is used for whitewater rafting in the warmer months.  We walked the trail for a good distance, but it was very rugged and once we were past all the more active water activity we decided that we had gone far enough and made our way back to the van.

We then carried on to Norway, took a look around, visited a few shops but did our spending in a combination quilting supply shop (one of the best Marissa has seen) that doubled as a gift/Christmas decoration store.  Marissa's quilting activities this coming winter will benefit greatly from our findings & John added another piece for his Christmas home decor.

We then headed back to Iron Mountain but stopped en route to buy the very best pasties we have found for this whole trip so far.  We stopped at a nearby roadside park, featuring yet another pretty waterfall and enjoyed our lunch while it was still hot.  After that we drove back to, and all the way through, Iron Mountain to join Jerry & Carol and support their fence building activities with lots of socializing.  At the appropriate time we went into town to their currently favorite restaurant and had the most delicious and enjoyable meal, leaving poor Zoe back at the campground, in the house but separated from the cats.  After dinner we returned there and continued talking until well into the evening, saying our goodbyes for another year as we will head out and continue our homeward trek in the morning.

A few miscellaneous pictures have been added to the Flickr set of the trip, found here.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #14

Today we said farewell to Lake Superior and began making our gentle way southwards.  We did not hurry our departure as we were reluctant to leave, especially as we finally had the decent size breakers we had been wishing for ever since we completed our boat cruise.  After last night's little storm the day started crystal clear, in fact the stars at 6:30 AM were quite brilliant, although Zoe had other things on her mind.

Fully packed up, and noting that we ended this phase of our travels at 2220 miles on the trip odometer, we pulled away in late morning and had a smooth and trouble free run, listening to the end portion of our second book on tape as the scenery down across the U.P. was nice but not enthralling.  With no difficulty we arrived at our first objective, Bond Falls, which we had seen last year but in dull and damp conditions.  This year in bright sun they looked much better.  We walked (climbed?) the steps and trail up past the main falls and along the rapids which extended for a fair distance.  Zoe seemed to have boundless energy and was totally unfazed by all the steps at the lower end.

After Bond Falls we meandered on to the town named Crystal Falls (wherever they might be - we did not see any actual falls) and stopped at our second objective, namely Winks Woods, a major craft store.  After a good browse amongst their immense stock, covering every square inch of surface we both found things to buy, mostly with a Christmas decorating theme.

Our last short leg was on to Iron Mountain and since the first thing we came to was Carol & Jerry's Summer Breeze Campground we stopped there for the remainder of the afternoon.  Later we all went into town for a good meal, leaving Zoe in the campground building.  We returned just in time for C & J to welcome two overnight campers, probably their last of the season as the close at the end of the week.  We duly separated and came on to our hotel and settled in for a couple of nights.  It was not a long driving day, just 184 miles putting us at a total of 2404.

A few pictures have been added to the end of the set which may be found here.

U. P. Trip - Fall 2010 - Day #13

This was our last full day at the cabin/house and we took it nice & gently.  Much of the day was lovely, maybe a little cloudier than the last few, but after tea a small storm moved in from the lake.  However, after a very relaxed start we drove into Calumet, filled up the van's gas tank and went to our favorite shop where we both spent some rather more serious money on ourselves, but were pleased with our purchases.

We then drove over to the "other side", stopped in the village of Gay (no doubt named in days of yore when Gay meant merry and/or happy) and of course took a picture of the Gay Bar.  We then cruised up the coast and at one point Marissa took a video which expresses its essence better than any still picture could.  Eventually we arrived at Bete de Gris Bay, parked by the beach and let Zoe have a really good romp, also captured at one point on video.  Once we were all sufficiently exhausted we cruised back via one or two of the more scenic roads and once back at the cabin settled in to enjoy our last afternoon, by stretching out indoors or reading out on the deck in shirtsleeves, although time slipped away between pages at one point!

Our new neighbors (from South Bend, IN) invited us to join them at a beach fire & prepared one, but shortly after tea had been drunk the weather changed dramatically, the breeze sprang up & the sky clouded over.  We did try to walk Zoe on the beach, but cut the expedition short as we were insufficiently wrapped up, so we retrieved some of the unused logs and took advantage of the indoor fireplace for our evening flames.

From tomorrow morning on we will be heading generally and steadily southwards until we eventually reach Mount Vernon, but not in too much of a hurry.  Have just added a couple of pictures to the set, but also have added Marissa's two videos to give a better sense of our  day.  The set is here.